Maya Wiley Kicks Off “50 Ideas For NYC”: Establish a Participatory Justice Fund To Fight Gun Violence
With Gun Violence on the Rise, Wiley’s Gun Violence Plan That Was Released in December is A Holistic, Innovative, Multi-pronged And Neighborhood-driven Approach To Fighting Gun Violence
NEW YORK – New York City mayoral candidate Maya Wiley kicked off “50 Ideas For NYC” today which will highlight the many ideas Maya has proposed throughout this campaign to make New York a better city for everyone.
The first idea is from Maya’s Gun Violence Prevention plan, and comes amid a rise in shootings in New York City. Just this week in BedStuy, there were five shootings, including a 12-year-old boy who is expected to recover. A key portion of Wiley’s plan would establish a Participatory Justice Fund to empower and support impacted communities to create innovative solutions to gun violence.
Establish a Participatory Justice Fund
People are experts in their own experiences, and no one knows the needs of a community better than that community. We must leverage the expertise and knowledge of impacted communities that have experienced and continue to experience gun violence on how to prevent this violence, how to address the trauma that arises from it, and how to build strong and resilient communities. It also ensures that the City leverages what exists in different neighborhoods and builds from the bottom up.
In order to elevate this community-based expertise and these solutions, we will:
- Lead the nation in establishing a Participatory Justice Fund so those closest to the problem can identify and implement innovative solutions to reduce gun violence by investing in existing and impactful community-based work, as well as identifying and supporting additional solutions needed.
- We will create an $18 million participatory justice process in communities struggling to stem gun violence. Akin to participatory budgeting, the participatory justice fund would allocate funds to communities identified by their rates of gun violence and support a democratic process to support existing and new programs that have proven track records or promising evaluation.
- This process will also allow impacted communities to identify and develop proposals to reduce gun violence– transforming potential perpetrators into community investors and shareholders of public safety. These proposals may include efforts that have had success including partnering with on-the-ground leaders to negotiate shooting truce/ceasefires, coordinating existing city resources to provide job training and relocation.
- This fund will be established with money redirected from the NYPD budget.
Maya has been endorsed by 1199SEIU, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, State Senator Michael Gianaris, Former Assembly Member and current DNC Vice Chair Michael Blake, Assembly Member Deborah Glick, Assembly Member Khaleel Anderson, Assembly Member Latoya Joyner, Council Members Helen Rosenthal and Steve Levin, and former City Council Member Jimmy Vacca. She has also received the endorsement of New York Progressive Action Network (NYPAN) and Democracy For America.
Since entering the race, Wiley has introduced several innovative policy proposals, including her New Deal New York, a piece of her economic vision that will create 100,000 jobs; a plan to save small business; a Universal Community Care plan to provide $5,000 grants for the 100,000 most in-need New York City; her Community First Climate Plan; a proposal to combat gun violence; and a plan to fight evictions.